Perceptions of Financial AI Assistants and Intentions Toward AI-Assisted Financial Products

Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved for several decades. Much research has focused on how financial institutions should design, build, and operate AI-assisted financial products and services and how customers perceive and adopt individual AI assistants. Nonetheless, separating the perceptions of the AI assistants and the intentions toward their respective offerings is inadequate. This study implemented a case study with Vietnamese university students (n = 458) to examine a theoretical model involving four AI-assistant attributes (anthropomorphism, security, performance, and effort), trust, and six intentions. It found that perceived anthropomorphism, performance (usefulness), and effort (ease of use) could significantly affect intentions to various degrees; the tendency to trust significantly mediated these associations. Perceived security did not show any significant influence. Implications for improving students' financial knowledge and habits and scheduling financial products and services were discussed based on these observations.